Review: College Road Trip

If you only see one movie in 2008, make sure it is Walt
Disney Pictures' latest offering: College
Road Trip. From the director who brought us Cruel Intentions and Cruel
Intentions 2, this movie is perfect for those who did not see Road Trip (2000) starring Tom Green, or
those who did see it but felt that the actors were not black enough.
Martin Lawrence plays the role of James Porter, a college student who
accidentally mails his long-distance girlfriend, played by female rapper Trina,
a videotape of his own infidelity. Realizing what he has done, he joins his
buddies, played by Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Will Smith and Coolio, on
an impromptu road trip across the country with the goal of intercepting the
videotape before his girlfriend can watch it, and hilarity ensues! The boys
learn about friendship, love, and the meaning of life as they get into and out
of all sorts of crazy trouble. The audience empathizes with Coolio when the
boys max out his parents' credit card and total his parents' car, and then
roots for him as he has sexual relations with a 450-lb behemoth of a woman
after a party at an all white fraternity.
But this is only a small taste of the high drama on display in this cinematic
masterpiece. Martin Lawrence is truly excellent, taking the audience on a
roller coaster ride of emotion which is sure to land him an Oscar. He is at his
best when James Porter is at his worst, portraying the protagonist's most
tender and trying moments with such skill that it is easy to forget that he is
a lying, cheating, deadbeat scumbag who refuses to pay child support. For
example, his discovery that the video is in the mail is met with a
four-minute-long string of cursing and referring to the woman with whom he
cheated, who is played quite convincingly by Whoopi Goldberg, as a
"good-fer-nuthin' ho", a "trick" and a
"G-R-O-U-P-I-E". Lawrence deftly switches from anger at his friend
(Freeman) for putting the wrong tape in the mail to anguish when Porter
realizes that now he won't be able to show his friends the video of Whoopi
Goldberg's rack.
Lawrence is not the only actor in the film to deliver a superb performance.
Morgan Freeman is excellent in the role based on Tom Green's character in the
original movie. Coolio, for his part, may have resurrected his own career, which
has been more or less dead since he was parodied by Weird Al when I was in 5th
grade, with a performance that is fantastic in its own right. And if that
weren't enough, the film ends with a music video for "single
again"
Even though the cast is almost entirely black, this movie is truly for
everyone, especially white suburban parents who want to expose their children
to "urban" culture without exposing them to any radical ideas they
might get from a Spike Lee Joint. 10 stars out of 4.